From left, LeBron James, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dwight Howard, Troy Daniels, Anthony Davis and Danny Green (seated) celebrate during the final minutes of a victory. The Lakers are off to their best start in years, but can it last? (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

No, really, the Lakers are back … well, so far … but that’s a lot farther than they’ve been in years.

Yes, there was that hiccup in the opener after all that talk about an intracity rivalry, when the Clippers beat them by 10 points as Lakers fans to a man, woman or child thought, “Here we go again.”

LeBron James, who had gone 7 for 19 from the field, was over the hill at 34, going on 35 next month

Or, LeBron and Anthony Davis were fine. The problem was everyone else.

And, the bench, which had been outscored 60-19, still stunk.

Or, even if the Lakers made it work, it would take time to assimilate their nine new players and incoming Coach Frank Vogel’s staff.

I definitely subscribed to the last one, but after a decade of worst-case scenarios, none have turned out to be true with the Lakers winning their next seven games.

So much for years of bad starts and worse endings:

2010-11: The Lakers, two-time defending NBA champions, are swept by Dirk Nowitzki and eventual champion Dallas in the second round of the playoffs in Coach Phil Jackson’s farewell.

2011-12: Under Coach Mike Brown, they fall to Kevin Durant and eventual Western Conference champion Oklahoma City 4-1 in the second round.

2012-13: The Lakers add Dwight Howard and Steve Nash but fire Brown after five games. Kobe Bryant is lost to a ruptured Achilles tendon in Game No. 80. The eventual Western Conference champion Spurs sweep them in the first round.

2013-2018: The lost years.

2018-19: The Lakers are back … they think.

With James arriving and hopes high, they’re 2-5 when Magic Johnson calls Coach Luke Walton to chew him out in a loud session that erupts in the press.

Meanwhile, James’ agent, Rich Paul, is going around telling everyone Luke is the wrong guy to coach LeBron, which could have come from only LeBron.

After that, things went downhill fast.

The Lakers rolled and tumbled into the offseason with Johnson leaving but continuing to bash GM Rob Pelinka; Jeanie Buss asserting leadership in the basketball operation; Walton turning down a chance to stay, and Ty Lue and Monty Williams, their top candidates to succeed Luke, turning them down.

The Lakers then hired Vogel, who arrived under the shakiest circumstances.

Vogel had been first contacted only to be an assistant. His introductory press conference was the one eclipsed by Johnson’s latest TV broadside against Pelinka.

Vogel was asked to include Jason Kidd, who had tried to promote himself as a head coaching candidate, as an assistant, a suggestion the new coach could hardly resist.

Kidd has a well-known reputation for backstage intrigue. The Lakers are so sensitive to suggestions that he will undercut Vogel, they have told press people that Kidd doesn’t want to do interviews, making him their first assistant to shun the press.

Aside from that, everything looked great.

Vogel had lost his halo following dismissals in Indiana in 2016 and Orlando in 2018. Before that, however, he took the Pacers to the Eastern Conference finals, where they challenged the LeBron/Dwyane Wade-led Heat teams in 2013 and 2014, winning acclaim as a defensive coach.

Most of what you hear about defense is about individual players. In fact, the best defenses are ones that excel in executing their coaches’ schemes … whether pressuring the ball to disrupt offenses or sinking back to make opponents beat them from outside.

As a young coach in Indiana, Vogel chose the sink approach, which fit a roster with limited talent – after Paul George – but great size with 7-foot-2, 270-pound Roy Hibbert, a lumbering project center, around whom Vogel built a defensive wall.

Vogel has erected a similar barrier with the Lakers with 7-0 Javale McGee and 6-11 Howard combining to play 38 minutes per game, and 6-10 Anthony Davis at power forward, which he prefers … a coincidental but weighty factor for the Lakers with A.D. in his contract year and yet to commit to staying.

Vogel’s approach is a throwback in a modern era defined by floor-spacing offenses with teams like the Warriors or Rockets relying on small-ball “death lineups.”

Vogel will try his own small-ball lineups, but he is doing fine staying big with the Lakers No. 1 in defensive rating and No. 1 in blocked shots at 8.4 per game, almost two ahead of the No. 2 team.

In days of yore, there was nothing surprising about Lakers excelling. Now heading for the 10th anniversary of their last title, ironies abound, none bigger than Howard’s contribution.

Dwight’s mere presence here is surprising after his 2012-13 stint. He arrived in a contract season after a defiantly confused end to his Orlando career that wrecked his last two seasons with the Magic after he had led them to the 2009 NBA Finals.

Howard refused to even say the polite but meaningless thing: that he hoped to stay. He proceeded to make little secret of his disdain for Bryant’s leadership and finally left, turning down the Lakers’ $130 million contract offer for $100 million in Houston.

In an appropriate farewell in Game 4 of the Spurs’ sweep, Howard was ejected and stomped off as replays caught Tim Duncan laughing at him.

Bryant showed up at the Lakers’ free-agent presentation to Howard, with all fawning over the center, and threw down the gauntlet, reportedly telling Dwight he needed to “learn how it’s done.”

Surprise! Howard decided to go elsewhere.

After that came more defiantly and increasingly futile stints in Houston (three seasons, ending when Howard fell out with James Harden), Atlanta (one season), Charlotte (one) and Washington (nine games).

With last summer’s other big free agents spoken for, Howard was left laying around until August when the Lakers lost DeMarcus Cousins and went looking for a big body they could get on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract.

The Lakers wanted Dwight to simply rebound and defend … but then, who hadn’t?

The Lakers would have been happy with that in 2012-13, even if Howard could still score back then.

It’s also what the Rockets, Hawks, Hornets and Wizards wanted the past six seasons.

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